How to deploy packed and unpacked plugins in wiki folders?

[Gabriele]

Let's set the bases:
- node 10.3.0, tiddlywiki 5.1.17
- I'm talking about tiddlywiki with node.js and hence about WikiFolders wiki's.
- Even if I use forward slashes in some description I'm working on windows so real fs paths use backslashes, but I hope it doesn't make difference.
- I tried to run tiddlywiki both directly with node.js and with TiddlyServer but it doesn't make difference.
- after a manual change of wiki fs contents, tiddlywiki is always restarted.

I setup a wiki with this structure:

plugins  (same level as wf)
wf   (that in a creative flare stands for wiki folder :)
wf/plugins
wf/tiddlers
wf/_system/config/FileSystemPaths.tid  ([is[system]removeprefix[$:/]addprefix[_system/]])
wf/tiddlywiki.info (the one from  Jermolene/TiddlyWiki5/editions/server/tiddlywiki.info)

Then i took Jermolene/TiddlyWiki5SamplePlugin/SamplePluginWiki and i proudly renamed it into  $:/plugins/gg/sample-plugin building it in a directory structure equal to the plugin name plugins/gg/sample-plugin
with the following plugin.info

{
    "title": "$:/plugins/gg/sample-plugin",
    "description": "Reverse macro plugin",
    "author": "me",
    "version": "0.0.1",
    "core-version": ">=5.0.0",
    "source": "",
    "plugin-type": "plugin",
    "list": "readme license history"
}

Now all that I want to do is to deploy that plugin into the wiki.
I was not able from the doc to understand what's the correct way to do it. I was expecting that, packed or unpacked, the handling of plugins would be symmetrical, but after a number of attempts I'm, well, let's say, a bit perplexed about the seemingly schizophrenic behavior of plugin mechanism handling of packed and unpacked plugins.

1- drag and drop the plugin on the browser. The plugin is deployed packed as "wf/tiddlers/_system/plugins/gg/sample-plugin.tid" and is listed as regular plugin.

2- copy gg/sample-plugin unpacked into wf/tiddlers/_system/plugins. The tiddlers are loaded but it is not identified as plugin.
2a- copy gg/sample-plugin.tid packed into wf/tiddlers/_system/plugins. The plugin is deployed and is listed as regular plugin. (same as case 1)

3- copy sample-plugin unpacked into wf/tiddlers/_system/plugins. The tiddlers are loaded with the correct prefix ($:/plugins/gg/sample-plugin) but it is not identified as plugin.
3a- copy sample-plugin.tid packed into wf/tiddlers/_system/plugins. The plugin is deployed and is listed as regular plugin.

4- copy gg/sample-plugin unpacked into wf/plugins. "Warning: missing plugin.info file in C:\home\web\TiddlyWiki\wf\plugins\gg" at tiddlywiki boot. Plugin is ignored, tiddlers are not loaded.
4a- copy gg/sample-plugin.tid packed into wf/plugins. "Warning: missing plugin.info file in C:\home\web\TiddlyWiki\wf\plugins\gg" at tiddlywiki boot. Plugin is ignored, tiddlers are not loaded.

5- copy sample-plugin unpacked into wf/plugins. The plugin is deployed and is listed as regular plugin, but I lost the directory structure (plugins/publisher/name).
5a- copy sample-plugin.tid packed into wf/plugins. Plugin is ignored, tiddlers are not loaded.

6- copy gg/sample-plugin unpacked into wf/plugins, adding "gg/sample-plugin" to the plugins list into wf/tiddlywiki.info. The plugin is deployed and is listed as regular plugin, but I still get "Warning: missing plugin.info file in C:\home\web\TiddlyWiki\wf\plugins\gg" at tiddlywiki boot.
6a- copy gg/sample-plugin.tid packed into wf/plugins, adding "gg/sample-plugin" to the plugins list into wf/tiddlywiki.info. Plugin is ignored, tiddlers are not loaded. "Warning: missing plugin.info file in C:\home\web\TiddlyWiki\wf\plugins\gg" at tiddlywiki boot.

7- copy gg/sample-plugin unpacked into "plugins", adding "set TIDDLYWIKI_PLUGIN_PATH=..\plugins" to the tiddlywiki start script. Plugin is ignored, tiddlers are not loaded.
7a- copy gg/sample-plugin.tid packed into "plugins", adding "set TIDDLYWIKI_PLUGIN_PATH=..\plugins" to the tiddlywiki start script. Plugin is ignored, tiddlers are not loaded.

8- copy gg/sample-plugin unpacked into "plugins", adding "set TIDDLYWIKI_PLUGIN_PATH=..\plugins" to the tiddlywiki start script and "gg/sample-plugin" to the plugins list into wf/tiddlywiki.info. The plugin is deployed and is listed as regular plugin.
8a- copy gg/sample-plugin.tid packed into "plugins", adding "set TIDDLYWIKI_PLUGIN_PATH=..\plugins" to the tiddlywiki start script and "gg/sample-plugin" to the plugins list into wf/tiddlywiki.info. Plugin is ignored, tiddlers are not loaded.

Please can someone tell me if this is expected behavior and what is the correct method to deploy packed and unpacked plugins?

Thanks, Gabriele

[Arlen Beiler]

You are really thorough!

See my commens below.

Scenario 1, 2a, and 3a are the same thing. Scenarios 2 and 3 are the way TiddlyWiki handles regular tiddlers. So it is expected to do that as well because the tiddlers folder is for regular tiddlers that need to be loaded as regular tiddlers not shadow tiddlers to allow editing. 

4- copy gg/sample-plugin unpacked into wf/plugins. "Warning: missing plugin.info file in C:\home\web\TiddlyWiki\wf\plugins\gg" at tiddlywiki boot. Plugin is ignored, tiddlers are not loaded.
4a- copy gg/sample-plugin.tid packed into wf/plugins. "Warning: missing plugin.info file in C:\home\web\TiddlyWiki\wf\plugins\gg" at tiddlywiki boot. Plugin is ignored, tiddlers are not loaded.

Interesting, didn't know the plugins directory expects to be one level, but it makes sense.

5- copy sample-plugin unpacked into wf/plugins. The plugin is deployed and is listed as regular plugin, but I lost the directory structure (plugins/publisher/name).
5a- copy sample-plugin.tid packed into wf/plugins. Plugin is ignored, tiddlers are not loaded.

5 is the expected way to use the plugins folder, as usual, 5a does not work because we are not in the tiddlers folder. 

6- copy gg/sample-plugin unpacked into wf/plugins, adding "gg/sample-plugin" to the plugins list into wf/tiddlywiki.info. The plugin is deployed and is listed as regular plugin, but I still get "Warning: missing plugin.info file in C:\home\web\TiddlyWiki\wf\plugins\gg" at tiddlywiki boot.

Apparently you also have a copy of it in TiddlyWiki/plugins/gg/sample-plugin, notice not in the wf folder, but the plugins folder beside it. That is the copy that was loaded.

6a- copy gg/sample-plugin.tid packed into wf/plugins, adding "gg/sample-plugin" to the plugins list into wf/tiddlywiki.info. Plugin is ignored, tiddlers are not loaded. "Warning: missing plugin.info file in C:\home\web\TiddlyWiki\wf\plugins\gg" at tiddlywiki boot.

Same as before, we are outside tiddlers directory.

7- copy gg/sample-plugin unpacked into "plugins", adding "set TIDDLYWIKI_PLUGIN_PATH=..\plugins" to the tiddlywiki start script. Plugin is ignored, tiddlers are not loaded.

Correct if not listed in tiddlywiki.info.

7a- copy gg/sample-plugin.tid packed into "plugins", adding "set TIDDLYWIKI_PLUGIN_PATH=..\plugins" to the tiddlywiki start script. Plugin is ignored, tiddlers are not loaded.

8- copy gg/sample-plugin unpacked into "plugins", adding "set TIDDLYWIKI_PLUGIN_PATH=..\plugins" to the tiddlywiki start script and "gg/sample-plugin" to the plugins list into wf/tiddlywiki.info. The plugin is deployed and is listed as regular plugin.
8a- copy gg/sample-plugin.tid packed into "plugins", adding "set TIDDLYWIKI_PLUGIN_PATH=..\plugins" to the tiddlywiki start script and "gg/sample-plugin" to the plugins list into wf/tiddlywiki.info. Plugin is ignored, tiddlers are not loaded.

8 is the correct way to load plugins that are not wiki specific. The environment variable you set is relative to the cwd (current working directory) which appears to be wf. If TiddlyWiki cannot find the plug-in in that folder it will look in the TiddlyWiki installation plugins folder. 

Please can someone tell me if this is expected behavior and what is the correct method to deploy packed and unpacked plugins?

The only correct way to deploy packed .tid plugins is through the tiddlers folder. TiddlerServer uses a different system to pack plugins which packs all the tiddlers into the plugin.info file and is deployed the same as an unpacked plugin.

Wiki folders loaded via TiddlerServer should be identical in most scenarios to TiddlyWiki running NodeJS.

Thanks, Gabriele

My pleasure

Arlen